Healing and Revival

"And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; "

Carrie Judd Montgomery was one of the most influential individuals of the healing movement in the United States. Not because she had a prominent ministry, but because her heart was to support what God was doing in the world. She was never flamboyant but she and later her husband were the communicators of what the Holy Spirit was doing over a 60 year period with her little magazine "Triumphs of Faith". Her relationships with people read like a who's who of the healing movement. She was prayed for by Sarah Mix. Ethan Otis Allen called her "his granddaughter", A.B. Simpson asked her to be part of the start of the Christian and Missionary Alliance, A.J. Tomlinson was healed through her writings, she knew Charles Cullis, Smith Wigglesworth called her and her husband beloved brother and sister in Christ and he would minister at their Divine Healing meetings, they were friends with Maria Woodworth-Etter, they supported Finis E. Yoakum's ministry, they held meetings with Aimee Semple McPherson. Charles S. Price regularly had articles in their magazine, they were friends with the Duncan Sisters, Dora G. Dudley, Sarah Lindenberger, Anna Prosser, and Mary Mossman. Carrie started one of the earliest healing homes in the country and continued it the longest. It's interesting that when people started falling under the power of God in Maria Woodworth-Etter's meetings she pointed to experiences of Carrie Judd Montgomery as support for what was happening. She was a highly respected woman in the healing community.

Carolyn Francis Judd was born in Buffalo, New York USA in 1848 to Orvan and Emily Sweetland Judd. She was born the fourth child of eight children. Her home was marked by an extremely loving relationship with her parents and siblings. She was brought up in an Episcopal church and regularly attended Sunday school where she received a strong foundation in Christian principles.

Sickness hounded the Judd family. When Carrie was ten, her older sister contracted pulmonary tuberculosis and within a few months she had died. As was common in those days both Carrie and her oldest brother, Charlie, also struggled with health problems. Her brother went to work at a sanitarium and later asked her to also come out and work as he was greatly improved there. She did go out to work but soon became ill and the doctor said that she should go into the country and rest, or she would not live to see twenty-one. Carrie returned home to help her mother because her father had contracted pneumonia and her sister Jennie whooping cough. Although her father recovered her sister did not and died.

When Carrie was in her later teens she decided to return to school and study to be a school teacher. During this time she came under deep conviction to give everything to God and take up the cross. One day as she was returning home from school she slipped on an icy sidewalk and hurt her back. Although she continued on, her health began to fail. She soon became bedridden and days turned into weeks, weeks into months, and months into two years. She became extremely sensitive to touch, movement, light, or sound (hyperaesthesia). She could not stand for blankets to touch her, and even the movement of someone walking into her room would cause excruciating pain. The Judds sought medical help but nothing changed.

Carrie was hungry for more of God. Someone gave her a copy of W. W. Patton's book "Remarkable Answers to Prayer". She began to be stirred that God could move through prayer and began asking God about it. After two years of her tortuous existence Carrie's father read a small item in the local news about a woman who had been healed of tuberculosis. Her name was Sarah Mix and she had been prayed for by Ethan Otis Allen, a Methodist lay minister who prayed for the sick. Mix was in Connecticut and the Judds were in New York. They could not travel to her so they decided to write and ask if she would pray for Carrie from a distance. She replied and sent the scripture from James 5:15 "the prayer of faith shall save the sick". They set a time and date when Sarah would pray on her end and the Judds would pray on theirs.

The fateful day arrived. Carrie had never heard of a miraculous or instantaneous healing so her hope was that improvement would begin that day and gradually increase. As the time came Carrie's nurse read scripture for her. She was suddenly in the presence of God and asked the nurse to help her up. She struggled to get up and her health improved immediately. Touch did not bother her and she felt "enfolded in an atmosphere of holy awe and glory". The change stuck and she improved dramatically. Soon she was eating and walking normally. Her two years of intense struggle were over and she walked with a new sense of the presence of God.

The story of her healing was published in the paper. The response was so great that she wrote a pamphlet about her healing called "The Prayer of Faith" and gave it out everywhere. Soon letters began arriving from those with sickness asking for her prayers for their healing. Her ministry was launched in this unexpected way. Over time she established a "healing home" in Buffalo where people could come for prayer for a more extended season. This was known as the "Faith Rest Cottage". One of the people that Carrie prayed for was Dora Griffin (later Dudley). Dora was healed and went back to her home to Grand Rapids, Michigan to open her own healing home called Beulah. Her tracts on Divine Healing influenced A. J. Tomlinson, the future leader of the Church of God of Prophecy.

Carrie started a journal called "Triumphs of Faith" that was sent all over the country and eventually the world. She began to come into contact with other divine healing advocates around the country. She became friends with Charles Cullis, A.J. Gordan, and A.B. Simpson. She was a regular speaker at divine healing conventions. In 1880 Carrie went to a camp meeting outside Chicago, where she met George Montgomery, a wealthy businessman and philanthropist. George had been healed when prayed for by John Alexander Dowie in 1888 and was a great supporter of divine healing. He asked that she would come out to California and speak at a meeting there. Within a week after arriving there Carrie and George became engaged. They were married by A. B. Simpson and Carrie moved to California, and eventually had a daughter named Faith. Carrie was asked to work with A.B. Simpson on the founding of the Christian and Missionary Alliance movement. She was elected recording secretary of the Alliance in October 1890. This only lasted a short time because the Montgomerys soon moved to California.

In California the Montgomerys established a new healing home called "Home of Peace", an orphanage, and a church. They became associated with the Christian and Missionary Alliance and Salvation Army ministries. The Montgomery's meetings and conventions were hotspots for God's working. They often had speakers from all over the world. Ethan Otis Allen spoke at a meeting in the Home for Peace in 1896. Finis E. Yoakum was healed in an Alliance meeting and went on to start his own healing ministry. Montgomery reported the testimony in her 1896 "Triumphs of Faith" and was a supporter of his ministry for the next several years. After hearing about the Allen Street revival she and her husband began seeking out the truth about this "Pentecostal experience". In 1908 God met her powerfully and filled her to a greater extent than she had known. They continued their praying, teaching, and ministry until both their deaths. George died in 1930 and Carrie on June 26, 1946. The photo above shows Carrie, George, and their daughter Faith.

Names showing up in blue are other people who have biographies on this web site.

Would you like to read articles by Carrie Judd Montgomery? Visit the Home Of Peace?